Maiden of the Sky, Master of the Tower

By CrimsonStarbird

-Hand in Hand, But Worlds Apart-

December, X783

Siegrain had a project, and that project had taken over the entirety of his office.

The left-hand wall was covered in a map depicting the mountainous region to the north-east of Fiore. The map itself was incomplete: the harsh climate and inhospitable terrain combined to create regions from which no explorer had ever returned to tell of their secrets. The tallest of the peaks were too high for even the hardiest of ice mages to scale; the perpetual blizzards dissuaded even those with the power of flight from entering its hidden valleys.

Thus the map, which stretched from floor to ceiling and covered almost the whole width of the small room's wall, depicted with accuracy only those mountains hospitable enough to support small villages, and the areas close enough to them for pioneers to brave in the summer months. Whole regions of the map had been drawn in by pure guesswork, estimating the heights of peaks and layouts of valleys from afar; a few central locations were entirely blank.

Yet the incompleteness of the map only made its presence there more impressive. Many of the blank regions had additional sheets of paper pinned over them, upon which Siegrain had sketched his own maps of the missing terrain, attempting to match the scale and style of the official publication as best as possible. This project of his had begun in the summer, when ventures into the outlying mountains were a relatively safe pastime enjoyed by many, but progress had slowed considerably once the tourist season had ended and the blizzards had set in – and he had come to better understand the scale of the mission he had undertaken.

Thanks to his flying ability, he could cover far more ground in a day than an ordinary surveyor, even accounting for doubling back every evening so that he could make camp somewhere safe. Crevasses and glaciers were no barrier to him, and avalanches no danger, while the sheer strength of the magic in his veins shielded his body from the worst of the cold, provided he didn't overdo it. He had by no means completed the map – it would be decades before technology and magic mastery had advanced sufficiently for the hardiest of pioneers to conquer that harsh environment, and besides, accuracy in height measurements, the composition of rocks and glaciers, and the nature of other land features that would have interested a geographer were not important to him, and so remained unacknowledged by his efforts. Nonetheless, if he had chosen to publish his work, his contributions to cartography would undoubtedly have earned him kingdom-wide recognition.

But he was not interested in anything of the sort. There was only one reason why he would have gone to so much trouble to map a hitherto unexplored area.

The patchwork map displayed the heights of the mountains using the standard combination of shading and contours, and he had added to it curving arrows in a colour scheme that made sense only to him. An ordinary explorer might have thought those arrows showed the usual wind direction or common avalanche sites. Only someone who understood his mission could have guessed that those directions indicated the subtle flow of magic through the region. The construction of something as great and terrible as an R-System always left traces for those who knew where – and how – to look for them.

All around the map, he had pinned an assortment of other evidence he had collected during his expeditions: sketches he and others had made of unnatural landforms; eyewitness reports of unusual activity in the mountains; and drawings of suspicious footprints, out-of-place clothing, and even three separate corpses he had found frozen in the ice, all of which had been killed by something or someone before the cold could do the job. Red string connected each piece of evidence to a pin on the map marking where it had been found. It had once been a two-dimensional display, but that single wall had long since stopped being sufficient to contain all the information he was drawing together. His sketches and notes now covered every free surface the room had to offer, including the other walls, and all were connected together by an enormous web of string which made crossing the few metres from the door to his desk the longest part of his commute to work.

Today, as on many days, Siegrain was stood in the centre of the room, surveying the network of information he had built up from scratch with more than a little pride. There was an uncapped marker pen in his hand; a fresh 'X' glistening on the map picked out one of the countless valleys as special.

"This is it," he murmured. "I've finally found it!"

When no response was forthcoming, he turned to glare at the room's other occupant. Ultear was sat at his desk, pouring over a report that her department had asked her to evaluate. As if she sensed the weight of his gaze, she glanced up, hit her head against one of the taut red strands, and hastily shuffled herself into a position designed to minimize the chance of her pulling down the entire display by accident. Siegrain still hadn't quite forgiven her for the last time that had happened.

"What?" she checked peevishly.

"Couldn't you at least look a little impressed?"

"About what? I wasn't listening, sorry."

He sighed. "I've found it. The seventh and final R-System."

"Oh, have you now?" Despite the curious lilt to her voice, she was impressed and he knew it. No one who had seen the time and effort he had put into tracking it down – that was to say, no one who had set foot inside that room over the past six months, before he had banned all visitors apart from Ultear in order to protect his project – could fail to have admiration for his achievement. "And you're certain this is the last one?"

"Absolutely. All the evidence I've found points to the fact that this is the only remaining R-System – apart from mine, of course."

"The evidence that you doctored, you mean?" she asked, amused.

He raised his eyebrows. "I only changed it a little. I don't want the other systems to exist any more than the Council does."

"So this really is the last one, then. And yet, ironically, the first one that you've found without any help from that girl."

A scowl played across his face, but only briefly, for nothing could bring him down in this moment of great triumph. He hadn't relied upon Wendy's powers for this – she did not know that there was an R-System in the mountains at all, let alone where within that vast region it could be found. Nor had he used the resources of his followers in the Tower during his search, or the aid of anyone from the Council – not even Ultear, who had been otherwise preoccupied with expertly keeping a distressed, vengeful and increasingly desperate Melchior from interfering with her true boss's work.

It had taken him six long months to reach this point; it had occupied his every waking thought since the sixth and penultimate system had fallen to him in the early summer. It had been a prolonged and dangerous battle of fragmented clues and false leads, fought against a dark cult containing enough powerful mages, knowledge and resources to have constructed something so complex in the most extreme of environments, and he had come out the victor. He had a right to be elated.

"When are you going to raid it?" Ultear continued.

"As soon as possible."

"In the middle of winter?"

"Don't you think I'm capable of that?"

She shrugged. "I've seen you drag yourself back half-dead from those mountains enough times over the past few months to hope you might have learnt your lesson by now, that's all."

"I'm aware it won't be easy." Siegrain's gaze drifted back to the great sprawling map. Amongst the many symbols written on it were a handful which denoted particular natural dangers he had encountered – places where, because he hadn't been prepared for the environment, he had almost died. "But time is of the essence here. I could wait six months until most of the winter snows have melted, but by that time the Tower will be almost complete, and I need to be firmly established on the Council before then. And if the Tower is almost done, I can guarantee that the system in the mountains is just as close. Summer may well be too late. No, I'll raid it within the week."

He traced his finger over the panoramic sketch he had made of what he believed was the concealed entrance to the final R-System. The inhospitable environment had been the cult's ally when they were trying to avoid detection, but in a raid it would work against them. Given the range and destructive potential of his magic, he could already identify several locations where a well-placed Abyss Break could bring down the mountain on top of the cult and possibly even take out the system itself in a single blow-

The sound of something clattering to the floor brought his thoughts firmly back to the room. "Ultear, careful," he snapped, without even looking.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," came her testy response. Careful to avoid the red strings, she reached over the side of the desk to retrieve the object she had accidentally knocked onto the floor. "At least you're not going to need this ridiculous setup in here for much longer."

"They'd better give me a bigger office when I join the Council," he grumbled to himself. "Then again, it'd be a shame to just tear all this down after how long I spent putting it together. Maybe I'll have them keep it here, as a record of all the effort I had to put in for the sake of those fools. This is how you track down a secret cult…"

"Siegrain."

Ultear, who clearly hadn't been paying any attention to his muttering, cut across him sharply. His gaze danced across to her; she raised the object she had knocked off the desk for him to see. It was a pocket watch of polished white gold, studded with small sapphires around the rim, and it dangled from a short, sturdy chain. It had caught her attention not because it was an extravagant or exquisite piece of craftsmanship – though it was certainly both of those things – but because it was so out of character for the man in front of her to care about owning an item of those qualities. Then again, judging by the initials engraved into the back of it, it didn't belong to him at all.

"Isn't this the watch that Councillor Byron reported as stolen the other week?"

"That's the one, yes."

She raised her eyebrows at him. "You know, I never had you down as a thief."

"It's all part of the plan, Ultear," he assured her, with an easy smile. "Byron will get it back before long. I'll be making sure of that."

"What are you plotting? You're not thinking of trying to implicate him in the final R-System project somehow, are you? It seems like an unnecessary risk to me. Everyone knows you're going to get his seat. He's not a fool; he knows better than to try and fight you for it… doesn't he?"

"You'll see."

"You know," she added, offhandedly, "I thought the point of being co-conspirators was that you were supposed to let me in on all your plans."

"Ah, but where would be the fun in that?" he grinned. "I like to keep you on your toes."

"You can say that again," she muttered with feeling. "Well, as long as you don't do anything that's going to jeopardize the plan to get you onto the Council, you can have your little games, I suppose."

"You know I wouldn't risk the plan," he told her. With a knowing smile, he added, "Of course, you could always come along on the raid if you wanted. Keep me out of trouble."

"I'll pass," Ultear replied, as she always did. "I have work to do here. Someone's got to keep an eye on Melchior."

"Suit yourself," Siegrain replied.

"You're not thinking of taking that girl with you, are you?"

"I made her a promise, and I intend to keep it," he responded coolly, ignoring the look of displeasure dancing within her narrowed eyes. The matter was clearly not open for debate. "If she wants to come along, she can do so."

"That girl is a liability to you, Jellal."

That got his attention, alright. His eyes snapped immediately across to hers; she flinched instinctively at the way the latent magic he was emitting had suddenly shot up in intensity. He growled, "Don't call me that."

Not at all innocently, she protested, "But it is who you are."

He didn't snap at her; he knew there would have been no point. He wouldn't have tolerated such smug behaviour from anyone else, but Ultear was his accomplice, and he could put up with it while she remained useful to him. He spoke coldly, but not threateningly. "Someone might overhear."

She giggled in that childish way of hers, pleased to have provoked such a strong reaction. "This conversation is incriminating enough as it is. We wouldn't be having it if we weren't both certain that this room was secure."

"I just don't want you to make a habit of it, that's all."

"As you wish, Siegrain," she said, offering him a sweet smile which he didn't return.

"Better."

"My question still stands, though. Why would you take that girl with you on the final raid?"

"Like I said, I made her a promise – she is welcome to come on any of the R-System missions with me, if she so desires."

"But why does a promise made to a naïve little girl over a year ago hold any meaning to you now?" When he said nothing, she attempted a different angle. "Then, what makes you think she'll want to come? You haven't seen her in months."

"She'll come if I ask her to."

"Why would you go to such lengths, though?"

"Because she's amusing," Siegrain told her, as a small smile touched his lips. "I want to see what I have to do to break her trust in me; how far I have to push her before she'll abandon me; how long it will take for her to realize who I really am. Her innocence is endlessly entertaining."

"Even so, she's dangerous. She knows too much – it would only take one slip for her to bring everything crashing down around you, like she almost did nine months ago. She's a disaster waiting to happen. And you know this."

"Oh?"

There it was again, that dare; that warning. Not intimidated in the slightest, Ultear tapped her index finger impatiently against the desk. "You know that the best course of action would be to remove her from the picture once and for all."

"I will not kill her."

The young woman gave an exasperated sigh. "You still care about her, don't you?"

"I do not. But she still belongs to me. I will not kill her, and neither will anyone else… Ultear."

"She will die anyway, when you use the Tower."

"Then it matters even less whether or not I kill her now, doesn't it?"

"Of course it matters!" she objected, shaking her head. "That girl has to-"

The temperature in the room suddenly dropped several degrees. Unrestrained hostility flashed between them, and when he spoke, it was an open threat. "Are you ordering me around, then, Ultear?"

She didn't need to be able to sense the icy fury of his magic to know that her very life might depend upon her answer to his question. She knew how far she could push him, and clearly that girl was the one matter upon which he would not suffer her interference.

So she glanced away shyly, hiding her annoyance and muttering her usual, "Of course not," as she normally would to defuse any such situation. However, she couldn't stop herself from adding, "But I do think you're making a mistake. Has it occurred to you that if you do not kill her, she might kill you?"

At this, Siegrain laughed out loud. "Kill me?" he echoed, choking as he tried to laugh and speak at once. "Have you even met her?"

"She's a good girl," his colleague pointed out. "She loves to help people; she likes everyone; the suffering of others makes her upset. If she found out who you really are, who you've been all this time, it might break her in ways you couldn't possibly predict."

He just shook his head, still laughing. "You don't know her like I do. She would never do anything like that."

Ultear looked like she wanted to argue, but she must have thought better of it, because she simply said, "If you say so. I still think that you're going to regret this, though."

"I will not kill her," he repeated, more calmly this time. "But I do agree that it is best to keep her at arm's length. Once this R-System has fallen, I will not contact her again." He placed his hands in his pockets; turned his attention back to the network of information that would lead him to the hidden cult, and to his destiny. "I haven't seen Wendy since the night of the fire. I never did say goodbye to her. This mission will be our final farewell."

The man, the girl, and the little winged cat stood in silence atop the ridge, surveying a world that was all white. Before them, the ancient glacial valley stretched out in all its magnificence, curving downwards to meet snow that had settled before the first human being had set foot upon the earth, and then rising up again, to a majestic, imposing peak that towered above them even from their high vantage point. The air was crisp and cold; each breath sent a shiver running through them and brought a whole new awareness of life and its clarity.

No footsteps led back the way they had come. All around them, the snow was unbroken; only the contrast of grey shadows on the white allowed them to pick out the steady rise and fall of landforms, forever buried beneath that smooth blanket. Only when it reached the tallest mountain did the snow's dominance start to wane, as the gradient at last became sufficient to shake off its clinging grasp and allow the black rock to peek through. A single cloud drifted silently across the brilliant blue sky.

It was a good day for a raid. It was bitterly cold, but the too-bright sunlight added an ethereal, beautiful touch to the landscape, and lifted their spirits just a little. Of course, the perfectly clear conditions would make it much more difficult for them to approach undetected – impossible, even, without camouflage gear that they simply didn't have – but attempting to launch an attack on a mountainous base during a snowstorm would have been the height of madness. Besides, Siegrain wasn't really one for subtlety when it came to his raids. Dealing with the Council took all the patience he had; there was none left over for his other enemies.

Thoughtfully, Siegrain reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper, which he unfolded to reveal a sketch he had made several days ago of the view before them. He compared the drawing to reality, nodded approvingly, and began making marks on it with a pencil.

"What are you doing?" Wendy asked him curiously.

When he did not answer, she tried to peer at the paper, but he deliberately turned it away from her, smiling a little all the while. After a moment or two, he folded the paper and returned the pencil to his pocket. Only then did he say, "Sentries. Can you sense any, Wendy?"

Siegrain had not bothered to bring binoculars, or any other ordinary instruments, on a mission like this. While it was true that visibility was exceptional under these weather conditions, none of the mundane senses could compare to detecting magic in such a place. Miles and miles away from the nearest human settlement, so isolated that not a single mage except him and his prey had passed this way for decades, it was so incredibly quiet that even the faintest of signals, which he wouldn't have hoped to pick up in a forest or a village, seemed to jump straight out at him.

"Four," she replied immediately, pointing out their hiding places to him one after the other. "That I can sense, anyway."

Grinning, Siegrain showed Wendy his sketch of the environment – upon which he had marked four crosses, one in each of the locations she had just indicated to him. "Not bad, huh?"

After a moment's uncertainty, she smiled. "You're getting better at sensing magic, aren't you?"

He thought he understood why she had hesitated. The better he became at detecting magic, the less need he had for her skills, and the less likely he would be to take her with him on missions. Not that it made a difference anyway. They both knew that this would be the last time they travelled together. He had made no secret of that.

After nine months without contacting Wendy, and without her attempting to contact him either, he had suddenly arrived in her village without warning. She had run out to meet him, just like she always used to, but she didn't jump on him or try to hug him; she kept a respectful, perhaps even wary, distance. It was greatly preferable to her previous clinginess. Maybe she was growing up, or maybe she could tell that he was.

He had told her that he was going to destroy the final R-System, that she could come if she wanted, and that it would be their last ever mission together. Expecting her to be enthusiastic, he had been surprised at how long it had taken her to make up her mind, and even once they had set off, she was a lot quieter than he remembered her being, and it had taken a few hours before she had started to relax once more around him.

"I've had a lot of practice in this environment, that's all," he informed her. "There'll be plenty more enemies in the caves that I can't detect from here, but there's nothing we can do about them until we get inside."

They were still a fair distance away from where he thought the R-System itself was, nestled in a man-made cave system within the giant peak in front of them – not so far away that the external sentries would not have spotted them, as the silence of the magic worked both ways, but far enough such that their enemies could learn nothing about them beyond their existence. They might have been emissaries from the Council; they might simply have been hikers, making the most of the calm weather. He'd do as much as he could before the cult could confirm the threat.

Siegrain removed the rucksack he had been carrying and dropped beside Wendy. "Look after my stuff," he told her. "I'll be back once I've dealt with these guys."

She looked at him, as if about to say something, but then nodded without saying a word. Carla was less subtle. Nestled in Wendy's arms, the cat glared openly at him as he prepared to leave. Did she think he was going to run off and leave them to freeze to death in the snow? He almost laughed at the thought. Bringing them out here was an awful lot of unnecessary effort for him to go to if he really did want them dead.

But as he was about to draw upon his magic, he saw Wendy shiver, and hesitated. He really wasn't going to be gone for long, but then again, this was an unforgiving environment, and the girl was only eleven years old. Though he had told her to wrap up warm, no number of hand-knitted woolly jumpers would be able to match the specialized extreme weather gear recommended for intrepid explorers. With a sigh, he removed the long white coat he had been wearing and draped it around Wendy's shoulders.

She glanced up at him in surprise. It was almost hurtful, how she clearly hadn't been expecting him to do anything kind. "But now you'll be cold," she objected.

Underneath, he was wearing his usual combat gear, designed to minimize loose fabric that an opponent could grab in battle rather than keep in body heat. "I'll be fine," he promised her, folding his bare arms. "For a little while, at least."

He knew she could feel it – the powerful magic surging just beneath his skin, radiating fierce heat and preventing the chill from settling upon his body. As long as he kept a close eye on how much power he had remaining, he had nothing to worry about from an environment such as this. The one advantage of almost freezing to death so many times was that by now, he had a good handle on his own physical limits.

After a moment, Wendy nodded in acceptance. She slipped her arms through the sleeves and drew the coat tightly around her; Carla flittered down to sit in one of the large pockets. Then she looked up at him, with that same warm smile he remembered. "Thank you."

He was trying to remain in a solemn mood for the mission, but he couldn't stop himself from laughing. She was quite a sight, wrapped in that coat that was far taller than she was; a good foot of it trailed out behind her in the snow. Her arms filled perhaps three-quarters of the sleeves, and the excess material dangled comically in front of her. She pouted, but it made her look even cuter, and it only made him laugh more.

"Hurry up and go," she told him stubbornly, and he did so, still grinning as he called upon his magic and launched himself towards the location of the first sentry with a blaze of golden light. He had known bringing her along would be entertaining.

As he had promised, he wasn't gone for long. It was only a couple of minutes later that he landed beside her in a flurry of snow – and most of that time had been spent flying around the valley. The guards hadn't posed a threat to him. The isolation of this cult – their lack of interaction with any enemies – had made them complacent. If no one around here was any stronger than that, this wasn't going to be much fun at all.

"That's the outside guards dealt with," he informed her casually.

"Did you kill them?"

Well, that wasn't the response he had been expecting. He had thought she would be impressed as usual by his power, but this worried reaction was almost as amusing as the blind faith she had showed when she was younger. "Now, Wendy," he chided her, his eyes glittering with dark enjoyment. "Would I do something like that?"

"No," she muttered, but it was evident from the way that she couldn't meet his eyes that the real answer was closer to 'I don't know'.

As it happened, he hadn't killed the guards, but that was mostly because there hadn't been any point. By the time they regained consciousness, the battle would be over. Still, toying with Wendy and observing her reactions was every bit as fun as he had hoped it would be. He remembered the question he had posed to Ultear only a few days ago: how far would he have to go before reality completely crushed any faith she still had in him? She hadn't abandoned him yet, had she?

"That's better. Now, there's a chance the bad guys still haven't worked out that they're under attack, so I think I ought to make it clear to them, don't you?"

Closing his eyes, he began to focus his power. It came to him at once, this magic; all aspects of it working in unison, overcoming their mutual resentment and entwining themselves together for the sake of his desire to wreak great and terrible change upon the world. It had never been so easy. There was a fierce ecstasy ripping through his body; a pride and a glorious arrogance that this power was his alone to command-

Wendy grabbed his outstretched arm. The sudden contact broke his concentration; confused and disorientated, the magic he had been calling tried to lash out towards the cause, and it took all his will to subdue it before it could hurt Wendy. Gasping for breath, and shaking from the strain, he snapped, "Wendy, what are you doing?"

"You can't do that here!" Scared but earnest; that childish determination that didn't know the meaning of fear. "If you destroy the mountain, you'll kill everyone inside…"

It was so sweet, how she cared even for the lives of those who had committed themselves to destroying the world. She should have known better than to try interrupting the casting of a spell like that. If he hadn't reacted in time, she could have died for the sake of her enemies.

And it was more than a little annoying. Magic shimmered in the air around him, unsure of whether to be angry or relieved. Keeping hold of it in that state wouldn't be easy until both he and it had calmed down.

"Look, Wendy. I've studied this geographical region for months. I know the exact layout of the enemy base. I've simulated avalanches and rockslides, and I know exactly where to target this spell in order to bring down the mountain properly. All I'm going to do is cut off all their escape routes. The main body of their base will be untouched, okay?"

It was almost a total lie. The alignment of his spell had been carefully calculated, certainly, but it was to maximize the damage dealt to the hideout and take out as many cultists as possible – how else was he supposed to fight an entire cult of mages on his own? Besides, they weren't just his enemies; they were dark mages, criminals, and a danger to the world. The Council had explicitly authorized him to use lethal force. He wasn't about to let Wendy get in the way of that.

But even if she suspected he was lying, she had no way of proving it without geographical knowledge she didn't have, and when he began invoking the spell again, she didn't try to stop him. Then all awareness of her and his surroundings dropped away as he wove that immense power into the form he required, and unleashed it towards the secret base. Space itself was ripped in two; the mere mountain didn't stand a chance. It was difficult to see the effect of the direct damage of his spell, however, as the entire landscape in front of them immediately began to collapse in on itself.

The great peak, which had ruled over this frozen part of the world since the earth's last great revolution, crumbled and fell; the avalanches, its final death throes, spread the devastation for miles around. Glaciers which had carved out valleys at their own sedate pace for millennia were suddenly launched into overdrive. It was a while before they could hear anything but cataclysmic destruction; it would be hours before the scenery finished acclimatizing to its new position.

It was with no small measure of dismay that Siegrain surveyed the damage he had done. He held up the highly accurate geographical sketch he had made, compared it to the view before him, and shook his head sadly. "It took me months to map this region, and now all my work is worthless…"

Casting that spell had taken a lot from him. He was starting to feel the cold now, as it overcame its fear of his possessive magic and began to encroach upon his body. As soon as he judged that the devastation below had had enough time to settle into a sufficiently stable formation, he said to Wendy, "Time to get down there ourselves, I think."

She gave a brave nod. When he took off again, flying down towards the base of the valley, she and Carla were right behind him. The main entrance to the cult's hideout – as far as he could tell – was a hidden pair of doors set into the back of an ordinary-looking cave in the mountainside. Not wanting to block his way in, he had angled his spell so as to leave that particular face of the structure mostly untouched.

He easily found the cave he was looking for, though it was now several metres lower in elevation than it had been the first time he had scouted it out. It was nothing special to look at: a cavern of sheltered black rock, its ceiling covered in icicles, with snow and ice extending along the floor for a few metres before fading away to reveal an ordinary stone floor. It might have been the den of some great cave bear, or worse, except that he was inside the mountain now. The ageless stone that was so effective at concealing the sense of magic no longer stood between him and the R-System. The moment he entered that cave, when nothing but manmade barriers stood between him and the heart of the system, he knew his guess had been right.

At the back of the cave, someone with a great talent for working stone – or someone with exquisite control over earth magic – had carved a pair of double doors which merged seamlessly with the wall. If Siegrain hadn't already known they were there, he would have struggled to find them, even with his well-honed talent for finding traps and secret doors. He did know, though. The magic in this place, magic which acknowledged him in a way it did not even acknowledge the one who had created this system, told him so. Besides, he did not need to know precisely where the wall ended and the doors began when his method for getting inside mostly involved blasting his way through any barriers with magic.

So he entered the final enemy R-System in an explosion of ice and stone. Beyond the back wall of the cave lay what had once been an impressive entrance hall, until the wrath of Abyss Break had stripped it of its elegance. Many of the pillars had crumbled or slipped sideways or simply snapped in two. A high proportion of the vaulted ceiling had fallen following the destruction of its supports; the elaborate pattern once lovingly carved into it was lost amongst the rubble covering the floor. Cracked statues ringed the room, all designed to kneel towards a sweeping flight of stairs.

Siegrain noticed hardly any of this. His eyes picked out the six cultists in the room with the ruthless accuracy of a hunter. He observed only enough of the environment to be certain it would not hinder him in battle, and then he was in the air once more, traversing the difficult terrain in an instant with magic gathering at both his palms.

The cultists had already been scared. When their hideout had collapsed in on itself, this group of survivors had fled for the main entrance in the hope that it might still be an intact escape route, and they found only death awaiting them. They did not recognize Siegrain. They were far too isolated out here in the mountains to have heard the news about the youngest Wizard Saint's mission. But they knew who he was nonetheless: they knew it from the rumours, which had reached all the dark guilds in this land and beyond; they knew it from the whispered uncertainty the cult's leader had heard in the magic of his R-System, which sang with fear and reverence of a lone man who travelled the world, eradicating all trace of this magic from the earth. When they saw him, they understood that the destruction of their hideout hadn't been a freak earthquake. In that moment, they knew true terror.

Power blazed all around him, a light so bright that his body could not contain it. He took out two opponents before they had even worked out what was going on. A third was saved only because his flight instinct overruled his conscious panic and teleported him just out of Siegrain's reach; he was fortunate indeed that he possessed the only kind of magic which could possibly have saved him in that situation. Now they were beginning to realize that the only chance they had of surviving was to kill Siegrain before he could get to them, and so they joined the fight in earnest.

Although they were far too slow to hit him while he moved at the speed of his magic, Siegrain couldn't help grimacing as he flew. He had hoped to be able to use surprise and intimidation for a little while longer. None of these mages would have been a threat to him alone – he doubted even the leader of the cult would stand a chance against him, the way he was now – but he was just one man, and while his magic would protect him to the best of its ability, it was hardly optimized for defence, and it would only take one lucky hit to put him out of the fight. As long as his opponents outnumbered him, no matter how great the gulf between his skill and their own, the fight would have no predetermined outcome.

But he wasn't fighting alone either. He had said once that he would rather have Wendy at his side on a job like this than an entire unit of Rune Knights, and it was just as true now as it had been then. "Siegrain!" she shouted across the room to him, she and Carla having finally caught up, and though he couldn't risk turning his attention away from his enemies in the middle of battle, he saw her actions in his mind's eye – the way she always closed her eyes to concentrate on her magic; the way she raised her arms in front of her with the grace of a dancer, performing the patterns most pleasing to her magic; the way the shining light rose up around her in a spiral like the gentle wind-

An instant later he felt the power of Wendy's support magic suffusing through his body. It was a simple spell, one loosely designed to raise his speed, but they had fought together often, and his magic and hers merged together perfectly. Her power took over maintaining his evasive motion, allowing him to focus all his own magic down to his fists, and he took out three of his remaining enemies with swift physical blows as he shot by. The last one teleported away at the last moment again, and he narrowed his eyes, preparing to strike him down with a ranged spell the moment he reappeared.

Except the cultist chose to materialize in the one place in the room where he was safe from Siegrain's magic – directly behind Wendy. With her in the line of fire, he froze on the verge of unleashing his power. Seizing the advantage, the cultist unsheathed a small, rune-etched knife and pressed it to the girl's throat.

Now what? Conflicting emotions rose up inside him, but before he could even begin to make sense of them, someone far more decisive than him made their move.

"Let Wendy go!" Carla yelled, flying at her top speed into the nearest pillar. The cracked stone teetered and fell towards Wendy and her captor. Siegrain's eyes widened at the cat's recklessness – he guessed she had hoped the cultist would abandon Wendy and teleport away to safety, and that she would be able to swoop in and drag Wendy out of the way in the nick of time, but…

But it wasn't going to work, because with the kind of teleportation that the cultist was using, the local transportation field would simply bring Wendy along with him when he moved. Siegrain knew this. After all, no one understood magic quite like he did. And that awareness brought with it a sudden clarity of purpose: he was the only one who could save her, and so that was what he would do.

In that instant, he had to find the point in space that the enemy mage was connecting to his present location, and somehow beat him there. The thought that it was an impossible task did not cross his mind for a moment. He pushed his own magic away, forcing it to quieten, trying to ignore Carla's scream of alarm and the pillar falling in slow-motion towards Wendy, trusting his knowledge of magic instead, straining all his senses to detect that brief anomaly in the network of space and time and magic- there!

As Wendy and her captor vanished, he burst into action like a pouncing lion. Alone, he would never have made it, but Wendy's magic surged strong through his veins, and it seemed as if the air around him were moving to allow him swift passage. The cultist reappeared in the far corner of the room but Siegrain was there too, ripping the knife straight out of his enemy's hand and sending it spinning across the floor. He wrapped one arm around Wendy, pulling her towards him and out of the startled cultist's grasp.

His free palm went over his enemy's heart. He was perfectly calm; his actions had been governed by the cold rationality that surpassed the unpredictability of an emotional response and ensured that he could achieve his objective in combat. The same could not be said for his magic. This man had tried to harm Wendy; it was furious on his behalf, and he made no attempt to keep it under control. There was an immense explosion of power as his magic burst forth from his hand and tore straight through the other's defenceless body, killing him instantly.

Long after the explosion had died down and silence had returned to the hall, Wendy was still shaking. She was pressed up tightly against him; her shivers reverberated through his entire body. It was unlike her to be so afraid. "It's alright, Wendy," he murmured.

Her voice was little more than a whisper. "Did you have to kill him?"

"Wendy…" His eyes widened momentarily in surprise, and then glimmered with dark appreciation. She wasn't afraid of the danger, but of him. He hadn't even intended to kill that man – though he hadn't exactly tried to keep his magic in check either – and it had undeniably been self-defence. He had done much, much worse, but then she didn't know that, did she? Was that the first time he had killed someone in front of her? He thought it probably was.

And yet she was still clinging to him. Her words weren't an accusation, but a plea for reassurance; a hope that he would tell her it had been necessary and allow her to accept it. What would he have to do to break that faith in him completely?

He was tempted to find out then and there, but she gazed up at him with those terrified and innocent eyes, and he just couldn't. There would be plenty of better chances to show her the truth about who he really was, wouldn't there?

"I told you, didn't I, Wendy?" he asked reproachfully. "If you're in danger, then I will do what I have to do to save you."

"…Yeah." A flicker of normality returned to her gaze. "I guess so. But you also said that you wouldn't come and save me if I was in trouble, and you're not so good at sticking to that."

"I thought you'd figured out years ago that that one was a lie."

"I thought it probably was. You'll always come and save me, won't you?"

"Yes," he promised her, softly. "Always."

A forever that would last only until the mission was over. It wasn't quite a lie. By the end of the day, the man who had made that promise would no longer exist.

Wendy beamed up at him. "And I'll come and save you too!"

"Oh, will you now?"

"Yup! I've been practising with my support magic. I learnt a lot from you, but since you haven't been around for a while, Master Roubaul has been helping me, and Carla has as well."

"You've improved a lot since we last fought together, I'll admit," Siegrain told her with a small smile, thinking about how strong her power had felt to him earlier.

"I've decided I'm going to become a proper mage, you see. Because for the past few months, I didn't know if you were going to come back or not, or if I'd ever be able to go on a mission with you again… and I realized that I don't want to stop. I'm a mage, and I want to use my magic to help people. Whether it's just little jobs, like the ones me and Lahar did last time I was in Era, or if it's catching dark mages and protecting the world like you do for the Council, it's what I want to do. Even if I can't go on missions with you any more, I'm going to get stronger, so that I can protect people by myself."

"That's very admirable of you, Wendy. But if you really are going to become a proper mage, you will have to learn how to fight. You know what that means, don't you?"

"I…"

"You can't protect any of the things you care about in this world if you aren't willing to fight."

"I can fight! That's why I've been practising, and… I want to be a proper mage, like you, I just… I don't want to hurt people."

She gazed up at him imploringly, as if she genuinely thought he knew a way out of that paradox. That adoring light dimmed a little when he shook his head. "Wendy, you need to stop being so kind towards your enemies. Look." He swept his arm around the hall of ruin and shadows they stood in. "If I hadn't got here in time, that man would have killed you. You understand that, don't you?"

"Yeah…"

"These people are criminals. They are here for one purpose only: to create the R-System, a magic which, if used to its full potential, will bring about the end of the world. Everyone you meet inside this mountain desires to destroy everything you hold dear. These people are the bad guys, Wendy, and no one in their right mind would dispute that. And the punishment for the choices they have made is death. Even if I could somehow capture them all and drag them back to Era to stand trial, there would only be one outcome: execution by the state. And because that's logistically impossible, not to mention a great waste of everyone's time and money, I am authorized by the Council right here and now to carry out that sentence. It's how these things have to work. These people knew the risks when they decided to pursue the path of dark magic."

"I know all that," she replied steadily. "I know that they're the bad guys, but… when I see them, I can't help wondering if they might be like you."

"Like… me?"

"You remember when we first met? Back in the forest, when I thought you were Jellal. You were the enemy of the Council, and the Rune Knights almost killed you. But when they talked to you, they realized that you weren't really their enemy, and now you're a Wizard Saint. If they'd just killed you, then you'd never have had the chance to work for the Council, and all the things we've done since then would never have happened…"

"That's different," came his short reply. "It's one thing becoming a dark mage in order to hunt dark mages. It's quite another to commit your whole life to constructing something like the R-System. It is a great and terrible evil, Wendy. No one who has embraced that darkness can ever come back from it."

She protested, "But you can't know that!"

"That's where you're wrong. I am, perhaps, the only person in the entire world who can know that."

"Oh," she said, coming to a sudden understanding. "Because of Jellal. Because you don't think he can be saved."

A faint smile flickered across his face. "Wendy, your very notion of 'saving' Jellal is one that he would find abhorrent."

"I don't think so. I don't think anyone could feel that way."

"Oh, really? You think you could find common ground with the man who could do such a thing to Matthias?"

She chose that moment to step away from him so that she could look at him properly. Concern creased her forehead. "What did he do to Matthias?"

"Oh? You mean you haven't heard?" There was a lilting curiosity to his voice, almost all fake. He knew she hadn't been back to Era since that night several months ago, and with her guild so isolated from the rest of the world, it was hardly a surprise that she didn't know.

"I heard that he had gone missing, and that the Council hasn't heard from him in months…"

"He's dead. Jellal killed him."

"No!" Wendy took another step backwards. "No! He couldn't have done! He wouldn't-! Matthias… he can't be…"

He made no move to console her. Carla glanced between them anxiously, wanting to help but not knowing how.

"Is he…? Really?" When Siegrain didn't deny it, tears filled Wendy's eyes. In a voice that was little more than a whisper, she asked, "What happened?"

"Matthias disobeyed the order of the Council and went to the Tower of Heaven to confront Jellal. He never came back. Jellal lured him into a trap and murdered him."

"No…"

"Are you still going to stand there and tell me that Jellal is a good person, Wendy?"

"I…"

The little girl was shaking far too much to say anything else. There was something about her distraught expression that made his heart race. He wanted to tell her the truth so badly - now, while she was more vulnerable than ever. When she was already in so much pain. He wanted to look her in the eye and tell her that it had all been him-

"Stop it!"

Startled, both Siegrain and Wendy turned to look at Carla. The cat was stood on the ground, but her arms and her wings were fully spread as she shouted at Siegrain. "Stop it, right now! Can't you see how upset she is?"

After a pause, Siegrain gave a small sigh. "Yeah. Sorry, Wendy. I'm going on alone from here."

"No! I'm coming with you!" Hurriedly wiping away her tears, Wendy brushed herself down and tried her best to look fierce – to look as if she hadn't just been coldly told that one of her closest friends was dead.

His response was firm. "No, you're not. You and Carla are going to wait here until I'm done."

"No!" she shouted again. "I can fight! I can help you!"

"As you are now, Wendy, you're only going to get in my way." He shook his head angrily. "This was a mistake. Ultear was right; I never should have brought you here."

She let out a great shuddering breath. "I… I'm sorry. I don't want to be a liability to you. I just… I… I'll wait here. Just, please, be careful."

"I will." He dropped his hand onto the top of her head with a light, affectionate thump. "You're a good girl, Wendy. I'm sorry you had to hear about Matthias like that. I thought you already knew."

Nodding once, she met his gaze and tried to smile, but she did not know how to deal with so much sadness; it came out all wrong. The important thing to him, though, was that it showed she had accepted his apology. It meant she would do what he said for the time being – that he could count on her not to do anything stupid.

Wendy and Carla had carried his backpack down with them when they had followed him into the base, and left it at the entrance so that they could join the fight. Siegrain strode over to retrieve it and handed it to Wendy. "I don't know how long I'll be, so I'll leave this with you. There are blankets in there, and food, and everything you would need to make a small fire."

She gave a solemn nod. He knew she was more than capable of taking care of little tasks like that. He had taught her himself, after all.

He continued, "If an enemy comes, don't hang around, and certainly don't try to fight – I might be too far away to come and help. The cave exit is still open, so you should be able to get away. Once you're outside, though, don't wait for me. You won't last long out in that environment on your own. There are maps in the pack, and money, so you should be able to find your way to the nearest village, and I'll come and find you as soon as I can. Alright?"

He saw her open her mouth to begin some childish protest about not wanting to abandon him, so he cut her off prematurely. "Carla – you're the sensible one, so I'm leaving you in charge. If there's danger, make sure Wendy gets away, and doesn't try to stay and fight or anything like that which is only going to get her killed."

"I'll look after her," the cat promised.

Wendy objected, with a touch of her old defiance back in her eyes, "Hey! I'm sensible too! If you think it's best for me to leave you, then I will!"

"Good." He waved at her over his shoulder as he strode deeper into the buried R-System. "I'm glad you were finally able to see things my way."

She folded her arms, pouting – and then her eyes suddenly widened as she realized what he had said. "Siegrain, wait!" she yelled after him. "That's not what I meant!"

But he was already gone.

A/N: Gah. Their relationship is such a mess right now. Neither of them knows how to act around the other, and it's horrible. On the plus side, geography is fun. ~CS